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JPIC is a biannual (every two years) conference exploring issues in the philosophy of jazz, as well as actually playing jazz. Presenters at the conference often do both! JPIC 2019 will be held at regional venues in Southern California with many events taking place at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, CA.

In Krakow, Poland will be The 2017 Summer Jazz Festival (Letni Festiwal Jazzowy) in Krakow's Piwnica Pod Baranami Club and other venues. Krakow's 22nd Summer Jazz Festival takes place over several months with the main venue in the Piwnica Pod Baranami (basement of the Rams cellar club) at 27 Rynek Glowny (Grand Square). Every year the festival, which started in 1996, presents about 60 concerts with approximately 300 artists from Poland and abroad. The total number of spectators is around 40,000. The radio partner for the Festival is Radio Krakow, with press partner "Dziennik Polski." The festival is the biggest Polish Jazz Festival and one of the biggest in Europe. For more information please visit http://www.cracjazz.com/en/ .

Rhythm Changes Conference Call for PapersThe fifth international Rhythm Changes Conference ‘Re/Sounding Jazz’ will take place at the Conservatory of Amsterdam from 31 August to 3 September 2017. The event is delivered in partnership with the Conservatory of Amsterdam, the University of Amsterdam, Birmingham City University, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, CHIME, and a number of academic publishers and journals. ‘Re/Sounding Jazz’ will be the largest event of its kind world-wide, expecting around 150 participants. Keynote speakers are Dr. Sherrie Tucker (Professor of American Studies, University of Kansas) and Dr. Wolfram Knauer (Director of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt). The conference brings together researchers across the arts and humanities to explore the relationship between the distinctive sonic histories that define jazz and the way in which these histories have been transmitted across cultures and societies over the last century. With an ear for the unexpected, the conference welcomes contributions that address jazz themes from multiple perspectives, including musicology, sociology, cultural theory, music analysis, history, media studies, and practice-based research.

Guitar Masters at the Final Gala of the Internetional Jarek Śmietana Jazz Guitar Competition in Kracow, Poland, July 1, 2017.

Summer 2017 will be remembered as particularly vibrant and colorful on Cracow’s jazz scene where they have already hosted huge celebrities from the domain of jazz music including Chris Botti and Dianne Reeves, and the organizers of the 22nd Summer Jazz Festival are nearly done with adding even more to this year's event’s program. You can read about attractions ahead at: Kracow Jazz.

The biannual international Jarek Śmietana guitar competition was concluded July 1. After three days of competition auditions, twelve talented jazz musicians of the younger generation have qualified for the finals.

First place was awarded to Gabriel Niedziela, a graduate of the Jazz Institute of the Academy of Music in Katowice, and a holder of many awards, including the 2nd Prize at the International Jazz Guitarists' Master Competition – Guitar City 2007 in Warsaw and previously honored by the Jarek Śmietana Prize’s jury in 2015. The year preceding the competition was spent by him in the company of Michael Schiefel's sextet at Hanoi Opera Hause, Ho Chi Minh City Opera Hause in Vietnam as part of the international project Europe Meets Asia in Jazz.

The second prize was taken by Sean Clapis, a Hartford-born artist, performing in Cape Verde (among other locations) as part of the National Youth Festival, currently living and working in Brooklyn.

Third Prize and a Special Prize of Anna and Alicja Śmietana went to Łukasz Kokoszek, a graduate of the Academy of Music in Katowice, a finalist of Jarek Śmietana International Jazz Guitar Competition two years earlier. Ex aequo third prize was also presented to a London guitarist Rob Luf, a graduate of the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. The recipients of the two other special prizes sponsored by Proxima and Sergiu Tututiu and Alicja Smietana were Mateusz Szczypek and Igor Osypov (Germany).

The Jury of the competition featured outstanding figures of the jazz world and the music market: jazz guitarist Peter Bernstein, pedagogue and jazz musician Karol Ferfecki, leading Polish jazz guitarist Marek Napiórkowski and world-famous jazz musician Mike Stern. The Director of the International Jarek Śmietana Jazz Guitar Competition, the President of the Polish Heart Foundation and the Director of the Cracovia Music Agency Witold Wnuk are also traditionally members of the jury in the capacity of artistic patrons.

The Final Gala at the Cracow Philharmonic would probably not have garnered such a large audience if not for the fact that it was graced by Mike Stern, Marek Napiórkowski and the Peter Bernstein Quartet. Many members of the international audiences of PhilosophyofJazz.net were surely pleased to discover Marek Napiórkowski, who has already built a devoted fanbase for himself in Poland (and not only!). He is extremely creative and hardworking (he has already recorded over 140 albums, both by himself and in collaboration with other performers). He is a Polish musical "Export material" of the highest quality – sensational in both studio and on-stage recordings.

You can already look forward to the next International Jazz Guitar Competition in two years in 2019.

March 26-29, 2017 is Piano Day: Why does the world need a Piano Day? “Because it doesn’t hurt to celebrate the piano and everything about it: performers, composers, piano builders, tuners, movers and most importantly, the listener.” – Nils Frahm.

Piano Day, an annual worldwide event founded by a group of like-minded people, takes place on the 88th day of the year (because of the number of keys on the instrument being celebrated) on the 29th of March. Piano Day Poland welcomes you to Cracow, Poland between March 26-29 for four concerts. More details soon at: Piano Day Poland

May 5-7, 2017 - Jazz and Philosophy Intermodal Conference (JPIC 2017), at La Posada Hotel & Gardens in Winslow, AZ, featuring these primary speakers: Andrew Kania (Trinity University in San Antonio, TX), James O. Young (Victoria University, British Columbia, CANADA), Paul Rinzler (California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, CA), Martin E. Rosenberg (Research Associate: The New Centre For Research and Practice), Steve Odin (University of Hawaii), Eric Lewis (McGill University), and Robert Kraut (Ohio State University). See the conference website at JPIC 2017.

On Saturday July 7 the festival has the wonderful singer Dianne Reeves who was featured in the movie "Good Night, and Good Luck." Later that night will be the fabulous trumpet player (he's not just smooth jazz) Chris Botti. He often plays a fantastic version of Miles Davis's "Concierto de Aranjuaz" by Rodrigo not to be missed.

On July 8 the final day of the Festival features The Brand New Heavies as well as Maria Sadowska and her "Jazz in the Streets" project. For more information please visit http://www.mlynjazzfestival.pl/ .

The Krakow appearance of the Arturo Sandoval Sextet at Centrum Kijów (http://www.kijow.pl/) kicked off spring, which—thanks to Letni Festiwal Jazzowy Piwnicy pod Baranami (http://www.cracjazz.com/pl/) [Cellar under the Rams Summer Jazz Festival]—arrived unusually early this year. Cuban rhythms warmed us and infected us with dance fever throughout the two-hour performance.

Arturo Sandoval had such a great time onstage with music and rhythm that it would have been a shame for us to enjoy ourselves any less. The performance also featured several jazz ballads, performed solo by Sandoval, on the piano; reminiscences of Dizzy Gillespie, a great friend of Sandoval’s who died in 1993; a short but substantial lecture, “What is bebop?”; and Sandoval’s excellent sense of humor. Thus no element of jazz was lacking. Sandoval also returned to his classic repertoire, from which he had departed on Eternamente Manzanero—his latest album, recorded with Jorge Calandrelli, which was dominated by romantic ballads and even pop sounds. Anyone wishing to be reminded of the mood of the Krakow concert would be well advised to dig To a Finland Station (1982) out of his or her vinyl collection.

"The Complexity of Defining Jazz: the Galactic model" colloquium at Northern Arizona University, March 31, 2016. See the videos at Jazz Videos.